How Everett toymaker grew into a
$400 million empire • 6-7
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COVER PHOTO
Funko has seen an explosion in popularity,
especially with its Pop! products such as these
Stormtrooper figures.
Kevin Clark / The Herald

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1727475

THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL 3

4 THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL

DECEMBER 2016

Appreciating the art of gift giving
Arlington firm sends
gift baskets across U.S.,
including 1,000 a day
during holidays
By Megan Brown

For The Herald Business Journal

Giving is an art.
That’s the business model of Anji and
Bill Cozart’s company.
The couple are the founders of Art of
Appreciation Gift Baskets, which strives
to delight every category of gift-getter, one
basket at a time.
New parents, fresh graduates, golfers or
gardeners. Art of Appreciation bundles up
treats, snacks, toys and more for them all.
The Arlington company ships about
1,000 baskets per day during the winter
holiday season.
Before Thanksgiving, they filled a
wholesale order for 65,000 baskets.
Not surprisingly, Mother’s Day is their
second-busiest holiday.
But gifting isn’t just for the holidays.
The firm supplies new parents with
newborn essentials such as burp cloths,
rattles, diapers and bottles for $39.99.
Most items are carefully cuddled into the
arms of fluffy stuffed animals.
Need some fizz in your relationship?
The Sparkling White Wine & Chocolates
basket sells for $89.99.
Spa baskets, starting at $29.99, include
lotions and scents specially formulated
for Art of Appreciation.
The Cuddles & Kisses spa set, $49.99,
has chocolates, cookies, body lotions and
a white teddy bear wrapped in cherry-red
gift boxes.
“Was well worth the money, it came
came timely & was the easiest one stop
shop ever,” Amazon reviewer Rahim Malik
wrote about the basket.
The range of gift baskets includes gourmet combinations of savory nuts and
cheeses to an “All American Snacker”
basket, a $49.99 bundle overflowing with
king-sized candy bars and popcorn.
All ground orders in the U.S. ship free.
Anji Cozart, 47, estimated that about 80
percent of the baskets are food-based.
There’s a wide range of treats, from gourmet chocolates and cheeses to salmon
and jerky.
Salmon might be Northwest inspired,
but sells well throughout the country.
“I’m from Tennessee. In the south, they
eat salmon from a can,” said Bill Cozart,
54.
Baskets are assembled by production
associates. Around 30 employees work
at the warehouse year-round. They hire
around 10 seasonal employees, mostly
high school seniors from Marysville
Getchell High School.
Anji Cozart designs the baskets herself. There are hundreds of basket choices
across the website’s 51 categories, and
she’s always eager to expand.
“Every time she goes to the store, she
finds something she wants to add,” said
production manager Cindy Russell, an
employee of 16 years.

PHOTOS BY KEVIN CLARK / THE HERALD

Anji Cozart, left, and Cindy Russell have worked together building a brand for more than 15 years. Cozart started the business
more than 15 years ago out of her home and some of her clients include Amazon.com and BabiesRUs.

A previously wrapped gift is reworked for a more pleasing look at the offices of Art
of Appreciation in Arlington.

Production associates carefully piece
together baskets according to the designs.
Then, the gift baskets are sent through
a machine that wraps them in a pliable
plastic, ensuring that they won’t be punctured in transit.
Since the company started using the
stretchy plastic, reports of damages fell
dramatically. That protection is essential,
because their top customers are located
on the East Coast.
“We sell extremely well there,” Anji
Cozart said. “We don’t know why. But
we’re not complaining.”
She has come a long way from wrapping baskets in the 15-by-15-foot loft of
their Marysville home 20 years ago when
she was a stay-at-home mom.
Before having two sons, she had worked
with mutual and investment funds.

Though she didn’t want be away from her
children, it soon became evident that she
needed an outlet.
“She was bouncing off the walls,” her
husband said. “I’d come home she’d have
the wall painted red, and the next week
it’d be green.”
Creating gift baskets combined her
interest in crafts and her boundless
energy. They considered purchasing an
existing gift-basket company, but Anji
Cozart realized that she was up for the
challenge of starting fresh.
The couple started Art of Appreciation
with $3,000 and Anji Cozart’s priceless
enthusiasm.
She enlisted the help of her friends,
including Cindy Russell, to assemble and
wrap baskets. In the beginning, they were
selling directly to consumers on their

website and through eBay. It was when
Art of Appreciation began selling with
Amazon in 2004 that they experienced
their most significant growth in sales.
“The baskets started to overtake the
house,” said Bill Cozart.
Once there were more baskets than
there was house, it was time to expand.
The couple first rented out a 7,000-squarefoot space in Arlington. Then they outgrew
that.
Finally they moved into their current
space, a 40,000-square-foot warehouse in
a UPS building in Arlington.
Bill Cozart joined full time in 2007.
Before that, he worked at The Seattle
Times.
Originally from Tennessee, he met Anji
while serving he was a Navy officer. After
he retired from his 24-year career, the
couple moved to Washington to be closer
to her family.
The couple’s sons, Joshua and Michael,
have helped with the company since
the beginning. Joshua, 18, is a senior at
Getchell High School, and Michael, 21, is
studying at Washington State University in
Pullman.
One of their best-selling Christmas
baskets also happens to be the trickiest
one to wrap. It’s a festive mini-sleigh and
the tricky part is getting the shrink wrap
around it to keep it all together.
For that reason, Anji Cozart offers to do
it herself.
“It’s my punishment,” she said. “Every
year I say it’s the last year we’re going to
sell it.”
So far, she’s assembled 200.
“I’m tired,” said Anji. “I’m ready to
sleep.”
But not yet. She still has 250 more to
wrap.

DECEMBER 2016

THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL 5

4 things to know about Boeing exec

Commercial Airplanes head is
first outsider to run division
By Jim Davis

The Herald
Business Journal

Boeing for the first time
tapped an outsider to run
its highly profitable Commercial Airplanes division.
Kevin McAllister, 53,
was named as CEO and
president of the division
last month. He joins Boeing after
27 years
with GE
Aviation,
one
of
Boeing’s
biggest
suppliers,
Kevin
where he
McAllister
served
as president and CEO since 2014.
McAllister replaces Ray
Conner, 61, who will retire
next year after leading
Boeing Commercial Airplanes since 2012.
The division is based in
Tukwila, and most of its
operations are in Western
Washington,
including
factories in Everett and
Renton.
Here are four things to
know about McAllister:

held various materials
engineering
leadership
roles supporting product
design,
manufacturing,
component repair and
technology development,
according to his GE Aviation biography.
He’s a graduate of the
University of Pittsburgh,
where he earned a bachelor’s degree in materials

3.
Familiar
with
Boeing
In a video to Boeing

employees, Muilenburg
praised McAllister as
someone who is already
deeply familiar with the
company. “He’s been a
strong partner of Boeing
for many, many years,”
Muilenburg said. “Most
importantly from a cultural standpoint, he’s a
great fit.”
McAllister echoed the
sentiment.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of
folks at Boeing,” McAllis-

ter said. “I’m not new to
Boeing. In the last 15 years
both in supporting products out in the field, working with customers and in
the trenches of campaigns
to go out and win.”
4. Excited about job
McAllister said in the
video message he was
“humbled and honored”
to join this incredible Boeing team.
McAllister said that his
wife told him how much

he looked forward to the
new job: “Kevin, you light
up like I haven’t seen you
light up when you talk
about Boeing.”
He will receive 120,000
shares of stock in the company that vests over the
next decade, according to
a Securities and Exchange
Commission filing.
The first 20,000 shares
vest next year, another
25,000 in 2021, another
50,000 in 2023 and the
final 25,000 in 2025.

FESTIVAL OF TREES

Thank You

Thank you to all who made the 2016 Festival of Trees such a tremendous success through your generosity, time and talents.
We are so grateful for your incredible support of Children’s Services at Providence. From corporate sponsors and volunteers, to tree designers
and every event attendee—it is the communal efforts of many individuals that make a celebration like Festival of Trees possible.

1. Boeing’s shaking
things up
At least one analyst
called it a surprise move
by Boeing CEO Dennis
Muilenburg.
“Muilenburg is shaking
up (Boeing Commercial
SPIRIT OF FESTIVAL
Airplanes)
with a surprise outside appointment
which is likely a healthy
move given that fresh
leadership eyes can create
positive movement,” analyst Peter Arment from
Baird Equity Research
told Reuters.
Another analyst, Richard Aboulafia, vice president of the Teal Group,
told The Herald that
McAllister
is
highly
respected in the industry.
McAllister had a frontrow seat to see “both the
challenges and failures of
the 787,” Howard Rubel,
an aerospace analyst at Jeffries, told Bloomberg.
“So he knows how hard
it is to run an airplane
company.”
2. Background in
engineering
McAllister joined GE
Aviation in 1989 and

engineering.
He rose through the
ranks at GE. As vice president and general manager
of global sales and marketing at GE Aviation since
2008, he was credited with
delivering record backlog
growth for the nearly $25
billion GE business.
He took over GE Aviation two years ago.

n the right stands a giant
bow-tie-wearing Willy Wonka,
cane in hand, top hat reaching
the ceiling. On the left stands a chesthigh Oompa Loompa, orange-skinned,
green-haired.
Welcome to Funko, a world where pure
imagination becomes reality.
The Everett company is the maker
of toys and collectibles, mainly cartoony, anime-inspired,
cute-factor-turned-upto-the-max figures of
the world’s biggest pop
culture characters, such
as Batman, Spider-Man
and Darth Vader.
Funko has seen stratoBrian Mariotti spheric growth in the
past few years as it looks
to elbow its way among industry heavyweights like Hasbro and Lego.
It went from earning $40 million a year

ANDY BRONSON / THE HERALD

Collectibles ranging from Marvel’s Deadpool to Disney’s Mickey Mouse, line a case in
Funko’s lobby.

in revenue in 2014 to making an expected
$400 million this year, said Mark Robben,
the company’s director of marketing.
“It makes people smile,” Robben said.
“I think we all know that we’re not curing cancer, but if we can put a smile on
people’s faces with a cute little potted
(Guardians of the Galaxy) Groot figure
then I think it matters. It makes people

happy. It makes us happy.”
This lightning-in-the-bottle success is
expected to continue, he said.
Funko employs about 250 people but is
looking to hire more in all departments.
How many will depend on growth, Robben said.
The company is currently based in a
warehouse with offices in south Everett

but plans next year to move its headquarters to the former Trinity Lutheran
College, a five-story building in downtown Everett at 2802 Wetmore Ave.
The new headquarters can house as
many as 300 employees — mainly in art,
sales, marketing, finance and IT. The
company will also keep its current headquarters at 1202 Shuksan Way as a key
warehouse, as well as, two other warehouses in the Everett area.
Funko will bring scores of creative
types to downtown Everett to eat in the
city’s restaurants, visit the city’s breweries
and even live in the city’s core, said Lanie
McMullin, the city’s economic development executive director.
“They’re so much fun, rarely do you
see this much energy…” McMullin said.
“I think that attitude will reflect in our
downtown.”
Funko is ramping up product lines,
such as its line of stuffed figures called
plushes, a line of T-shirts with Funko characters and even home accessories such as
coffee mugs with a Funko Boba Fett face
or Funko Batman and Joker salt-and-pepper shakers.
The company already makes short YouTube videos with Funko characters, but
there are plans with Marvel comics to
expand to longer-form videos.
“As the marketing director, I would love

DECEMBER 2016

nothing more than to eventually see the
Funko movie using our art style,” Robben
said. “I think that would be perfect for
that. Obviously that’s a long ways away.”
So how did the company reach these
heights? It didn’t happen overnight.
The company was founded by Mike
Becker in 1998 in Snohomish. The early
product lines included bobbleheads and
coin banks based on cereal advertising
characters and other retro figures like
Popeye and Evel Knievel. Becker sold the
company in 2005 to current CEO Brian
Mariotti, who had been running and
designing nightclubs.
The company continues to be privately held, but private equity group Acon
Investments bought into the company last
year.
Mariotti has been aggressive about getting licensing deals to make collectibles
from Marvel and DC comics, “Star Wars”
and Disney. The company has gone after
some of the hottest popular culture trends
of the day, making figures for hit television
shows including “Game of Thrones” and
“The Walking Dead.”
The company also lined up a who’s who
list of retailers to sell the company’s products: Target, Walmart, Amazon, Hot Topic,
GameStop, Barnes & Noble.
Artists in-house do the majority of
design work. The final products are made
in China and Vietnam, shipped back to
Funko through the ports of Everett and
Seattle and, for apparel, through the
port of San Diego. Then the products are
shipped around the world.
In 2010, Funko debuted its Pop! line
of vinyl cartoony figures with oversized
heads and giant eyes, giving them a distinct Funko style and feel. The first four
characters — two versions of Batman,
Green Lantern and Batgirl — were shown
at Comi-Con in San Diego. The line has
helped rocket Funko forward.
“Brian always said he knew he had
something when it wasn’t just middle-aged men lining up,” Robben said.
“He started seeing women and kids line
up.’”
Robben credits hard work by Funko
employees, the artists who have been able
to create a unique style with a mix of cuteness and fun.
Robben, who joined Funko two years
ago after working for Big Fish Games in
Seattle, also said the market has grown for
these pop culture items.
“When you’re a fan of something, when
you’re a fan of ‘The Avengers’ or a fan of
‘Game of Thrones,’ you want to be able
to get T-shirts and artwork and figures,”
Robben said. “That’s just how people consume pop culture.”
The items that Funko produces are also
inexpensive. People can buy a Pint-Size
Hero for $3.99. Most of its Pop! figures are
just more than $10. Some people collect
the figures hoping that they’ll increase in
value over time. (Robben’s first Funko figure was a fairly rare Elvis Pop! figure that is
now sells for $175 on eBay.)
Funko has licenses from so many
content providers that it could make thousands of characters, probably more than
it will ever produce, Robben said. That
allows the company to make figures and
products for niche groups of fans which
might be small in terms of population but
whose members are passionate about
what they follow.
“We’re able to spread across a lot of

THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL 7

ANDY BRONSON / THE HERALD

Georgia Paschen takes inventory in the samples room at Funko. The company sends out samples to retailers and news media such
as television show Good Morning America.

KEVIN CLARK / THE HERALD

The new home of Funko is the now defunct Trinity Lutheran College in downtown
Everett.

“As the marketing director, I would love
nothing more than to eventually see the
Funko movie using our art style.”
— Mark Robben
different fandoms — there is something
to collect for everybody,” Robben said.
“There’s no way my dad would care about
‘Star Wars’ or Marvel, but he might be
interested in one of the NFL figures that
we make or he might think Ricky Bobby
from ‘Talledega Nights’ is interesting and
put that on his desk.”
To that end, the company really tries to
engage its fan base, Robben said.
“If fans go to our Twitter feed or Facebook feed, we listen, we run polls we ask
people what do you want to see? What
are you interested in? We asked fans, do
you want ‘Stranger Things’? And they said
yes, that was a great show, we want Funko
‘Stranger Things’ figures. So we went and
got the license,” Robben said.
“I think even Netflix took notice of that.
When Netflix saw how many of our fans
were saying we want this. That made those
discussions pretty easy and very, very easy
to get it done.”

About 30 percent of all toy sales in the
U.S. come from products brand licensing,
said Adrienne Appell, director of communications of the New York-based Toy
Industry Assocation.
And collectible items are seeing a huge
upsurge; her association named 2016 as
the Year of the Collectible.
“Funko kind of fits in the sweet spot
of both,” Appell said. “Not only are they
appealing to adults and some kids they
really do have some terrific licensing
deals.”
The toy industry goes through fads, but
toys made through licensing deals and
collectibles seem to be holding a lasting
appeal, she said.
All of these elements make up the successful formula for the company. Funko
is still small compared with Hasbro and
Lego — which made $4.5 billion and $5.1
billion in revenues respectively last year.
But the company sees continued growth.

“At some point the law of large numbers
will prevent you from growing at those
rates,” Robben said. “We definitely foresee growth continuing. If we didn’t see the
growth continuing then I don’t think we’d
bother moving into a new headquarters
and hiring new headcount.”
That new headquarters will be unlike
anything that downtown Everett has ever
seen. The building is close to the existing
offices so it won’t be a major change of
commute for Funko employees.
It’s also close to Xfinity Arena: “I’m not
making promises, but I know having the
arena fairly close gives us the opportunity
to put on some fan events and do some
things around Emerald City Comicon or
events that we put on ourselves,” Robben
said
Right now, Funko gets visitors from
around the country, people who pop in
to look at the Funko headquarters. The
company used to give tours, but there’s
enough proprietary information from
upcoming movies that Funko hasn’t been
able to let fans come through the doors
these days.
In the new headquarters, the company
plans to include a bottom-floor exhibit
hall that features its current and historical products and some giant figurines, like
the Willy Wonka and Oompa Loompa in
its current lobby.
Funko also plans to open a flagship
retail store at the location. (Although the
company doesn’t see itself competing in
the future with its current retail partners.)
The headquarters aims to bring a
“touch of whimsy, a touch or retro, a
touch of class” to the building with its logo
on the outside and images of its artwork
on display. CEO Marriotti’s fingerprints
are all over the design of the new building,
Robben said.
“He wants the building to reflect the
brand 100 percent,” Robben said. “Our
brand is fun. It’s warm, it’s bright colors,
it’s playful, it’s slightly irreverant. We’re
not afraid to poke fun at ourselves and
have a laugh. We don’t take what we’re
doing too ultra seriously. We know who
we are and we love what we do.”

8 THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL

DECEMBER 2016

Housing needed for medical students
WSU students to stay for short
stints in Everett next school year
By Jim Davis

The Herald
Business Journal

EVERETT — The first
wave of students at Washington State University’s
new medical school will
arrive in Everett during
the next school year — at
least for short stays.
Fifteen students will

spend a week at a time —
six weeks total during their
first two years of studies
— in Everett, hopefully, to
begin to grow roots in the
community.
“We really want them
to feel like they’re a part
of this community and not
just here to do a rotation
and leave,” said John Tomkowiak, the WSU medical

school dean.
To prepare for the
arrival, the university is
seeking families who will
house the students. This
“billet program” will allow
the students to become
familiar with the town and
surrounding communities
and also connect with local
families.
“We hope to have 15
students on this campus
so we’re looking for 15
potential billets going forward,” Tomkowiak said.

To learn more
Families interested in hosting medical
students can contact Cheryl Blackburn at
cheryl.blackburn@wsu.edu or 425-405-1712.
WSU will host information sessions with the
community in early 2017.
During the third- and
fourth-years of medical
schools, the same students
will train in Everett and
the surrounding towns,
but will be responsible

to find their own housing. Even so, Tomkowiak
hopes that the students
will remain in contact with
the host families.
WSU is just getting the

medical school under way.
In 2015, the Legislature
gave approval and funding for the university to
start just the second public
medical school in the state.
The Floyd College of
Medicine, named after
WSU’s late president,
Elson Floyd, received preliminary accreditation this
fall. The medical school is
a community-based training model where students
will spend the first two
years doing classroom
work in Spokane, but then
get more clinical experience and more classroom
work either by remaining
in Spokane or studying in
Everett, the Tri-Cities or
Vancouver.
In Everett, WSU has
reached agreements with
Providence
Regional
Medical Center Everett
and The Everett Clinic
to help teach the medical
students. More than 680
people applied for just 60
spots by late November.
The school is only taking
students from Washington
or those with ties to the
state.
“I think it’s exciting to
think about that in just a
few short months, we’ll
have that first group of 60
medical students showing
up ready to be our inaugural class, ” said Kirk Schulz,
WSU’s president, at celebration of the accreditation in Everett in October.
From the beginning,
students will be assigned
to each of the four communities. The medical
school is also recruiting
staff including an associate dean to start as soon
as next spring in each of
the towns. That way, the
students will have support
when they arrive for their
one-week stays.
One of the goals for the
program is to train doctors
who are willing to practice
in rural and under-served
urban areas, Tomkowiak
said. Studies have shown
that the best way to do that
is to actually train them in
those communities.
“We want to create this
continuum where they
have this opportunity
to grow up, come from
an area, train in medical
school there, do their residency program and be
able to stay and practice,”
Tomkowiak said. “I think
we have that model all
mapped out and ready to
go.”

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Help recognize an
Emerging Leader
Nominations are being sought for the
second annual Emerging Leader contest
to recognize and celebrate the next generation of leadership in Snohomish County.
The award seeks to highlight young
individuals who exemplify strong character, initiative, leadership and community
involvement.
Sponsors
include
HeraldMedia,
accounting firm Moss Adams, Economic
Alliance Snohomish County, Puget PR
and Leadership Snohomish County.
The deadline to nominate a candidate is
Jan. 8. To submit a name, go to www.heraldnet.com/emergingleaders. The winner
will be announced in April.
Last year, Everett’s Adams & Duncan
law firm partner Chris Adams received
the inaugural award. Adams was a member of Everett’s planning commission and
was chairman in 2013 and 2014. He’s also
worked on the city’s salary and charter
review commissions.
He’s a former board president of Sherwood Community Service helping people

Nominate today
The deadline to nominate a
candidate is Jan. 8. To submit
a name, go to www.heraldnet.
com/emergingleaders. The winner will be announced in April.
with disabilities, served on the board and
executive committee for Providence Hospital and worked on the Everett YMCA
board.
More than 50 people were nominated, and many were nominated
multiple times. Of those, the field was cut
to a dozen then pared to four finalists.
The other three finalists were George
Kosovich of the Verdant Health Commission; Lisa Lefeber, director of strategic
communication and policy for the Port
of Everett; and Shanon Tysland, owner
of Experience Momentum, a Lynnwood
health and fitness business.

EVERETT — Lower oil prices, a weaker
Chinese economy and trade sanctions
with Russia are contributing to less cargo
passing through the Port of Everett this
year.
While a decline had been expected,
it was greater than what port officials
had forecast because of a dramatic drop
in cargo for oil projects in Alaska and
Canada.
“We took a big beating on that one,” said
Carl Wollebek, the port’s chief operating
officer.
Last year, Royal Dutch Shell used
the port to stage equipment for exploring drilling sites off Alaska’s coast. The
port also moved a substantial amount
of cargo headed for Canada’s shale oil
industry.
This year, Shell suspended its Alaska
exploration, and shipments for shale oilfields have dried up, Wollebek said.
The increase in energy industry cargo
in 2015 masked a downturn in timber
exports bound for China’s construction
industry.
The Port of Everett exported 187,861
tons of logs in 2014 and 144,991 last year,
a 23 percent decline.
Log exports through October slightly
are behind where they were 12 months
ago. Wollebek said they likely will close
that gap by the end of the year.
Timber exports are expected to be
about the same in 2017, he said.

Economic sanctions between Russia
and the United States have taken a toll
on Everett’s waterfront. The sanctions
came out of Russia’s takeover of Crimea
from Ukraine in 2014. As a result, the
Russia-based Far Eastern Shipping Co.
(FESCO) no longer sends a cargo ship to
Everett, which used to receive a FESCO
ship at least once a month. Another line,
Sakhalin Shipping Co. still moves freight
between Everett and Russia. At the same
time, shipments to the South Pacific and
Southeast Asia have increased, Wollebek
said.
Fifty-five containers full of soybeans
from South Dakota are waiting at the port
for a ship headed to Papua New Guinea,
he said.
The number of ships stopping at Everett is down from last year, but each ship is
hauling more cargo.
That shift is expected to continue as
shipping companies move to bigger cargo
ships. One shipping company, Westwood
Shipping Lines’ ships are already too big
for Everett’s berths.
The Port of Everett is in the early stages
of strengthening and expanding its berths
— work that port officials estimate will
take at least another six years and cost
more than $300 million to complete.
President-elect Donald Trump railed
against U.S. trade relations as unfair and
promised to renegotiate or pull out of
some international agreements.
It is not clear what Trump’s actual trade
policy will be, but it could significantly
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Mechanics warn about cheap parts
Poor-quality auto
parts, often from
China, as well as
counterfeit parts pose
real problems
By Jennifer Sasseen

For The Herald Business Journal

Fixing your own car is a pastime that is
as American as apple pie and baseball.
But it’s getting more difficult these days
and can even be downright dangerous.
Cheap car parts, often from China, have
flooded the U.S. market in the past 15
years and the quality is hit-or-miss, local
mechanics say.
“Every other time I work on a car, I’m
being stymied by Chinese parts,” said
Marc Buchea, a mechanic at a private
garage in Shoreline.
He worked on a Mercedes Benz recently
and had to file the brake pads the owner
bought at a national auto parts store. It
wasn’t his first experience doing that.
The problem, he said, “is that when they
stamp out the brake-pad backing, which
is a piece of steel, their dies aren’t accurate. So a lot of times I’ll have to take those
brake pads and I’ll have to actually file
them, file the ends of them to make them
work.”
Accuracy needs to be within a couple
hundred thousandths of an inch so a discrepancy in the finished product is not
visible to the naked eye and is only discovered at installation, he said.
Tom McAllister, owner of Brakes for
Less in Lynnwood, said he’s had to file
brake pads a couple of times, but he
tries to buy higher quality to avoid the
problem.
He agreed the quality of Chinese-made
parts is not as good as car parts made in
the United States, but they’re often all
that’s available.
“It’s really hard to buy American anymore,” said McAllister, who has operated
his shop for 30 years.
It’s not just brakes. Problems are being
seen in all sorts of car parts.
Look at online review sites such as Yelp
and www.consumeraffairs.com and you’ll
find dozens of customers citing faulty car
parts manufactured by Chinese companies that stranded people on highways
and led to accidents and near-accidents.
Bucheau recalled a time that he went
through eight alternators for one particular car at a national car parts chain before
finding one that worked.
“And we kept calling stores and having them bench-test that alternator and
it turned out that out of like seven or eight
stores that we called, at five or six of them
the alternator wouldn’t even work out of
the box,” he said.
One thing consumers can do to help
determine if a part is good, Buchea said, is
ask for the defect rate, which is based on
the rate of return. However, not all stores
have that information.
McAllister and Steve Hottinger, who

“Every other time I work on a car, I’m being
stymied by Chinese parts,”
— Marc Buchea
owns Pro Muffler and Brakes in Everett,
buy parts from trusted vendors such as
Renton-based Olympic Brake Supply or
wholesale parts distributors WorldPac,
which has a Lynnwood warehouse.
Many auto parts at those businesses
are still made in China, but the quality is
closely tracked.
At least one company thinks it’s a matter of educating the public on the benefits
of using higher-end parts, according to a
story at www.autonews.com.
Federal Mogul, a Michigan-based
company that owns a number of parts
suppliers, sends its technicians around
the country to spread the word about
its brands, such as Champion spark
plugs, Moog steering parts and Fel-Pro
gaskets.
“We used to train installers, but as
the AutoZones and the O’Reillys took
over, they began to train them; when we
lost that connection, customers began
converting to private-label, cheap products,” said Daniel Ninivaggi, CEO of the
company’s aftermarket division, in the
story.
As if it wasn’t difficult enough to tell the
difference between good- and poor-quality car parts, a recent rise in counterfeit car
parts available on sites like eBay is further
complicating things.
Counterfeit parts often look like one
that bears the trademark of a legitimate
and trusted brand, but was produced by
another party and is usually not made to

the specifications of the original equipment manufacturer.
These parts “represent a grave threat
to public safety,” according to the Intellectual Property Rights Coordination
Center, which is part of U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agency. The
U.S. Federal Trade Commission places the
value of the counterfeit car-parts sector at
$12 billion a year.
A seemingly endless string of prosecutions on counterfeit parts includes two
Washington state cases from 2013, involving the online sale of counterfeit airbags
from sources in China. It’s a product the
center considers potentially extremely
harmful.
“Some of the most dangerous
counterfeit products involve the explosive elements of air bags that can
literally explode in the victim’s face during
an accident,” the center states on its
website.
Buchea, the Shoreline mechanic, thinks
there should be more U.S. government
oversight on all imported car parts, especially those related to crucial areas of
performance.
Tires, brake hoses and brake fluid are
among 13 items of motor-vehicle equipment for which the federal government
enforces minimum safety performance
requirements. Certification of compliance
is shown by the symbol DOT, for Department of Transportation, on the outside of
the part’s box or container.

Brake pads are not on the list. Buchea
said the only control the government currently exerts on brake pads is the amount
of metal in them, because the state
Department of Ecology has determined
that the dusting from brake pads that contain a non-ferrous metal, such as brass or
bronze, gets into storm water runoff and
negatively affects fish.
“So now they’ve got certifications for
the brake pads being eco-friendly but
not for being DOT approved,” he said.
“So that’s more important now, is the eco
thing, than actually being government
approved to stop your vehicle.”
Customers want cheaper parts because
they don’t want to spend money on car
repairs, Buchea said. Brakes are the most
important item on a car, he said, “and
everybody handles them like such a trivial
thing — oh, it’s just brake pads, right? No
big deal.
“Well, there’s a huge difference between
a $20 brake pad and a $60 brake pad.”
He advises customers to go with original equipment manufacturer brake pads
— usually made by the original supplier
though often also in China — rather than
the cheaper aftermarket, or generic, brake
pads.
“That’s where you should not compromise, is on tires and brakes,” he said.
“Because you’re talking about wet traction around here, we have so much rain
around here. Stopping distance is key.”
McAllister of Brakes for Less and Hottinger of Pro Muffler and Brakes agreed.
“You don’t want cheap when it comes
to stopping your car,” McAllister said.
Or as Hottinger puts it, “There’s no use
going somewhere if you can’t stop.”

DECEMBER 2016

THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL 11

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12 THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL

DECEMBER 2016

Trying to grow the green economy
By Jim Davis

The Herald
Business Journal

Washington state sits
in a unique position to
emerge as a leader in
the green economy not
just nationally, but also
globally.
That’s the opinion of
Paul Roberts, the Everett
city councilman who is
also the past president of
the Association of Washington Cities.
He’s working with the
association and its nonprofit arm, The Center for
Quality Communities, to
bring together businesses,
government and other
voices to make it happen.
The first step needs to
be an analysis of the state’s
strengths and weaknesses
in the green economy,
Roberts said.
“Part of this is an inventory on what’s going on
out there and how does
that relate to what’s most
likely going to happen in

FILE PHOTO

Everett City Councilman Paul Roberts is leading an effort to help grow the green
economy in Washington. One of the first steps is to assess what’s being done in the
state.

the next 20 years,” Roberts
said. “And how do we pull
these things together to
make this the center where
if I want to go work in that
field I want to come here.”
The group is seeking to
raise $70,000 from private
foundations and corporations to do that study. If the

money can be raised, the
group hopes to conduct
the study next year.
One of the advantages
for the state is a private
sector community — people in the legal, business,
finance and insurance
worlds — willing to work
on the issue, Roberts said.

“They’re not wondering
whether this is happening
around the globe,” Roberts said. “They’re on
the cutting edge of how
to respond to a changing world and a changing
climate.”
In just the past several years, there’s been a

universities. The state’s top
companies have a global
supply reach, including
Boeing, Microsoft and
Amazon.
There’s available manufacturing capacity in the
Puget Sound region from
Everett and Arlington and
also in Pierce County.
He notes that countries around the world
are at trying to capitalize
on the green economy.
A changing climate creates challenges, but also
opportunities,
Roberts
said. “Adaptation and mitigation has been described
— not by me, but I love
the description — managing the unavoidable and
avoiding the unmanageable,” Roberts said.
The first step is to figure
where the state is at and
where it needs to go.
“Are we going to solve
climate change? No,” Roberts said. “Are we going to
be able to turn some corners in terms of reducing
our carbon footprint and
greenhouse
footprint…
that’s what needs to
happen.”

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progression in how people
respond to climate change,
Peter B. King, CEO of the
Association for Washington Cities.
King went to a conference several years ago in
Arizona about climate
change and received several questioning emails
from his membership
about why he was attending. Now he said he’s not
getting those questions
from his members.
“We’ve come a long way
in a pretty short time in
people recognizing that we
need to be proactive,” King
said.
Roberts said what will
most likely be impacted
by a changing climate is:
water; energy; agriculture
and forestry; and the types
of materials to construct
buildings.
“In each of those four
areas, the state of Washington has some pretty
deep roots,” Roberts said.
“We’re not somewhere out
of the picture in terms of
any of those sectors.”
The state also is home
to several top research

How to Advertise in the Herald Business Journal
Call 425.339.3445 Email TRaimey@soundpublishing.com
www.TheHeraldBusinessJournal.com

1743068

DECEMBER 2016

THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL 13

JIM DAVIS / HBJ

Bank of the Cascades, which purchased Lynnwood’s Prime Pacific Bank earlier this
year, is now being acquired by Montana-based First Interstate.

Montana bank to buy
Bank of the Cascades
By Jim Davis

The Herald Business Journal

LYNNWOOD — Bank of the Cascades, which moved into the Snohomish
County market this year by purchasing
Lynnwood’s Prime Pacific Bank, is now
being acquired by a Montana bank.
First Interstate, headquartered in Billings, announced that it was buying Bend,
Oregon-based Bank of the Cascades for
cash and stock.
“This opportunity is a good fit for us
geographically, strategically, financially
and culturally. Cascade’s operating philosophy, commitment to community
banking and corporate responsibility are
similar to ours, allowing for a seamless
integration of our
two
companies,”
said Kevin Riley,
First
Interstate’s
president and CEO,
in a statement.
Bank of the Cascades CEO Terry
Zink said First
Interstate is an
exceptional banking partner for his
company.
“Strategically they
intend to grow Cascade’s branch network,
as well as our metropolitan commercial
banking centers across the Northwest,”
Zink said in the statement.
Last spring, Bank of the Cascades made
a deal to purchase Prime Pacific, which
has branches in Lynnwood, Mill Creek
and Kenmore. That deal closed in August.
Zink said that the time that it was his
bank’s entry into the Seattle-area market.
“What it will probably do for us is
actually accelerate some of our expansion plans in Seattle,” said Reeves, noting
that the First Interstate will be about four
times larger than Bank of the Cascades.
First Interstate also has more consumer
programs that it will be able to offer to
current and future customers, Reeve said.
First Interstate is paying $589 million

for Bank of the Cascades in the deal,
which is expected to close by mid-2017.
The deal must be approved by regulators
and First Interstate and Bank of the Cascades shareholders.
Bank of the Cascades has 50 branches
across Oregon, Idaho and Washington. After the acquistion, First Interstate
will have about $12.1 billion in assets,
$10.1 billion in deposits and $7.6 billion
in loans. First Interstate will also have
131 banking offices stretching from the
Rockies to the Pacific Northwest. Four
of those offices will be the Puget Sound
region.
First Interstate will need to shed about
150 jobs after the merger. Reeves said
that most of those positions will go away
through attrition.
Most of the jobs are
in Billings or Bend;
none are in the
Puget Sound region.
If the name and
logo sound familiar, there’s a reason.
First Interstate Bancorp was a holding
company that was
acquired by Wells
— Chip Reeves
Fargo in 1996.
What was then
known as First Interstate BancSystems, headquartered in Billings, had a
franchise agreement with First Interstate
Bancorp.
After the latter company was purchased
by and merged into Wells Fargo, First
Interstate BancSystems purchased six
banking offices in Montana and Wyoming and obtained an exclusive license
to use the “First Interstate” name and
logo in Montana, Wyoming and the six
neighboring states of Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and North
Dakota.
Reeves said that First Interstate Bank
doesn’t have the licensing to use the First
Interstate name in Oregon or Washington, so the branches here will keep the
Bank of the Cascades name for now.

“What it will
probably do for us
is actually accelerate
some of our
expansion plans in
Seattle.”

1721980

14 THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL

DECEMBER 2016

DECEMBER 2016

THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL 15

CEO turned around Canyon Creek Splashy Rock City grows in Everett
Espresso, candy and
haircuts, with a dash
of eye-catching color,
equals a hit

By Deanna Duff

For The Herald Business Journal

By Victoria Buritsch-Tompkins
For The Herald Business Journal

ANDY BRONSON / THE HERALD

Canyon Creek president and CEO Bill Weaver wears his usual Hawaiian shirt. People wouldn’t recognize him if he didn’t, he said.
Weaver is retiring after turning the company around from near bankruptcy to one of Snohomish County’s largest employers.

market with a focus on customization.
They pursued and were longtime participants in the Seattle Street of Dreams, a
showcase for trends and innovation in
luxury housing.
When a new warehouse was built in
1997, Canyon Creek seized the opportunity to implement environmentally
friendly practices from the ground up.
It included such efforts as using finishes
with low-emittance rates. In 2000, it
received the Evergreen Award from the
Environmental Protection Agency for
environmental excellence and leadership
in pollution prevention.
His dedication to community extends
beyond the office.
“You can focus on numbers in business and you do have to do that because
it pays the bills. However, you can never
lose sight of the people. You’re dealing

I didn’t know how
I was going to do it,
but my banker did.

Edouardo Jordan | Chef/Owner | Salare

with their lives and the most important
thing you owe them is to make the wisest
choices you can,” Weaver says.
He is a longtime and generous benefactor to the Monroe Gospel Women’s
Mission through monetary donations,
auction fundraising and moral support.
“Bill is incredibly unselfish in what
is sometimes a selfish world,” says John
Stima, pastor at Monroe Gospel Women’s Mission. “We work with some of the
most vulnerable people in our community and help as much as we can. Bill has
even helped with basics such as getting
a new heater so we can keep the ladies
warm every night.”
Weaver’s hands-on leadership has
served Canyon Creek, the regional community and affected national change.
He is now looking forward to a more
hands-on approach to what inspired all of

it: woodworking.
From his childhood, he still recalls the
sight of curled wood shavings and sounds
of planing studs as carpenters remodeled
the family home.
He looks forward to returning to his
own woodworking and perhaps adding
to the family heirloom he crafted, a cherry-and-maple dining set. Perhaps he will
finally finish remodeling his own kitchen
— a hub of activity for Sunday night family dinners.
The end of December marks his official retirement.
“My plan is to quietly walk out the
door. Maybe a few weeks later someone
will finally ask, ‘Has anyone seen Bill
around lately?’” Weaver says. “I’m leaving
things on healthy footing. Now it’s time
for new blood and the next generation to
lead.”

EVERETT — The flash of color catches
the eye driving near Silver Lake: Tangerine orange, bright blue and a bubblegum
pink.
That’s what it’s supposed to do.
Three businesses with the splashy
colored buildings are the brainchild of
Christopher and Jill Dayton. They started
with Rock City Espresso, added Rock City
Cuts and just opened Rock City Sweet
Shop with its giant lollipop sign.
The colors of the three separate buildings are supposed to give the Rock City
business hub at 1831 Silver Lake Road a
retro-skater feel.
It’s been a long journey for the Daytons,
who are originally from the San Francisco
Bay Area, but who moved to the Puget
Sound area in 2003.
Christopher Dayton, 50, was working in
mortgage and real estate before the recession. He knew that his job wasn’t going to
last.
He could see that people were being
frugal as the recession started, but saw
that people still treated themselves to an
occasional latte. So the couple decided to
try their hand at the trend of hand-roasted
espresso in a new market: Las Vegas.
“I came up with the name on the way
out to Vegas,” he said about the Rock City
brand.
A drummer in his spare time for a Christian rock band, Christopher felt the name
would be a play off his Christian faith and
his love of music. He opened a Rock City
espresso stand in Las Vegas in 2008.
It flopped. Hard.
They moved back to the Puget Sound
area within months, where Christopher
started selling espresso out of the back of
his truck, in a 5-by-4-foot trailer.

JIM DAVIS/HBJ

Jill and Christopher Dayton started Rock City Espresso during the recession. It failed miserably in Las Vegas. So they returned to
Snohomish County and gave it another try.

Rock City hub
Three businesses with the Rock
City name share the same
corner at 1831 Silver Lake
Road, Everett. More information
can be found at its Facebook
page at www.facebook.com/
RockCityEspresso/.

He started toting the cart to soccer
games, and approached the Safeway at
11031 19th Ave. SE, Everett, near Silver
Lake about using their parking lot to sell
coffee. They agreed. The stand became a
hit.
“It was amazing,” Christopher said.
“[Las Vegas] was such a massive failure.
We moved back and it just took off.”
As the customer base grew, Christopher

was approached about moving the stand
to Silverlake Commons.
Despite a short move to Snohomish, Rock City Espresso has been able to
grow its customer base. They returned to
the Silverlake Commons early in January
2016, and took over the barber shop. The
sweet shop opened in August.
For the candy shop, Jill said they wanted
a “bright, happy pink,” and interior garnishes of lemon yellow to evoke sweets
like taffy, pastilles, and baked sundries.
The shop was initially soft-launched
in August, but as of late October the
snug shack has been replaced by a larger
pink trailer with a wheelchair-accessible
ramp.
It was a necessity to Christopher — he
talked about the limited space of the original shack, and how sometimes people
would have to stand outside in the rain
while their family members browsed. It
just wasn’t the experience he wanted.

The businesses employ four, but the
Daytons’ older kids, Julian, 19, and
Claire, 16, lend a hand. The younger
ones, Audrey, 12, and Ethan, 10, are also
around. Ethan is the Sweet Shop’s official
taste tester.
Christopher waxed poetic when asked
about his decision to open the candy
store.
“It’s like my father used to say, ‘There
are two places that people will always
have a smile on their face, regardless of
the country or culture — and that is ice
cream stores and candy stores. Even for
just two minutes out of your day.’”
Determined to keep building reasons
for customers to head to their corner,
Christopher is looking to add a food truck
to the property. What advice does he have
for other entrepreneurs: “Gather as much
information as you can from business
owners. Not textbooks. Write down as
much as you can. Ask lots of questions.”

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Bill Weaver recalls contemplating the
California landscape decades ago while
stationed at Coronado Bay. His four years
in the U.S. Navy were coming to a close
and he had yet to choose his next path.
“It suddenly hit me that I wanted
to make things. I wanted to work with
wood,” Weaver says. “Some people go
through their entire lives trying to figure
out what they want to do. I was blessed to
know early and actually did it.”
This month, Weaver is retiring as president and CEO of Monroe’s Canyon
Creek Cabinets. He joined the company
in 1995 when it was in turmoil, verging
on bankruptcy and trying to re-establish
itself under new ownership. By 2000, he
was leading the company on a path of
success.
At its 2007 peak, sales were $92 million
with a workforce of 715. Under Weaver’s
leadership, Canyon Creek successfully
survived the recession and downturn
in sales. It is surging forward with 2016
projected sales at $60 million and a workforce of 440 employees.
“One of the truest examples of Bill’s
great leadership is how he directed Canyon Creek through the recession years,”
says Doug McIalwain, showroom manager at Canyon Creek’s Spokane location.
Weaver’s business philosophy is rooted
in family values. From the age of 4, he
worked at his father’s pharmacy stocking
candy shelves.
As an adolescent, he worked full time
during his summers earning 50 cents an
hour. He grew up in a town in New Jersey
of only 800 people, so customer service
was paramount. He learned the basics of
business from dusting to merchandising,
selling to window displays.
“Small businesses and entrepreneurs
are really the backbone of what runs
this county,” Weaver says. “We’re the
ones who provide most of the jobs. We
enhance people’s lives because they can
stay and work in their own communities.”
Part of the original strategy to revitalize Canyon Creek in the mid-1990s was
revamping the mission. Weaver helped
the company transition into a high-end

16 THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL

DECEMBER 2016

LYNNWOOD — Edmonds Community College Board of Trustees member
Emily Yim attended
the White House
Community College
Convening on Oct. 26
in Washington, D.C.
The convening featured
a retrospective of the
Obama administration’s
accomplishments on
Emily Yim
behalf of community
colleges and the effort to build broad
support to guarantee free community
college education to hardworking students across the country.
LYNNWOOD — The Board of
Commissioners of
Snohomish County’s
Verdant Health Commission announced it
will formally hire Robin
Fenn as the superintendent of Verdant during
its next regular meeting
Robin Fenn
on Dec. 14. She will
replace current superintendent, Carl Zapora, who is retiring at
the end of 2016. Previously,
Fenn was research manager at the Snohomish County Department of Human
Services.
LYNNWOOD — Edmonds Community College Board of Trustees member
Carl Zapora was reappointed on Oct. 1
by Gov. Jay Inslee. He will also serve as

PEOPLE WATCHING

the board chair. Zapora has served on
the board since January 2013. He will
continue to serve as a board member
for another five-year term ending in
September 2021, and as chair through
September.
MONROE — Canyon Creek Cabinet
Company in Monroe has announced the
promotion of Marla
Wardell to customer
service manager. She has
been a member of Canyon Creek’s customer
service team for nearly
two years and previously
held supervisory roles
Marla Wardell
in other organizations.
Wardell will provide leadership for the
customer service and order entry teams.
BOTHELL — Gov. Jay Inslee
appointed Sabine Thomas on Oct. 3 to
the Cascadia College Board of Trustees.
Thomas is the executive director of the
Washington Association for Infant Mental Health. She has been an instructor
and research associate with Bastyr University as well as a private practitioner.
EDMONDS — WestWater Research
has appointed Erik Borgen as the Northwest Regional director in Edmonds. Borgen will be responsible for new business
development and project management
for WestWater throughout Washington,
Oregon, and northern California. He
brings more than 10 years of experience

to WestWater, working with water rights,
water transactions and hydrology on
projects throughout the western U.S.
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Dr.
Michael Hrankowski has been inducted
as an Associate Fellow of the American
Academy of Implant Dentistry. Hrankowski’s practice, Edmonds Woodway
Dental Care, is in Mountlake Terrace.
EVERETT — Providence General
Foundation, fundraising organization for
Providence Regional
Medical Center Everett,
announced the appointment of Lynne Hall
to its board. Prior to
joining the foundation
board, Hall served as
chair for two years at
Lynne Hall
the Everett Golf &
Country Club’s Annual Golf Tournament, which benefits the Providence
Linda Baltzell Cancer Patient Assistance
Fund.
EVERETT — Sno-Isle Libraries’
business librarian, Kassy Rodeheaver is
scheduled in March will present at the
South by Southwest, or SXSW, conference in Austin, Texas. Rodeheaver and Jay
Lyman from the Seattle Public Library
received notice recently that SXSW
would like their presentation on how
public libraries can help entrepreneurs
for the event’s Interactive Festival in its
Startup Village.

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SNOHOMISH — Professional Compounding Centers of America has named
Dawn Ipsen, owner of
Kusler’s Compounding
Pharmacy in Snohomish, as its Pharmacist of
the Month for October.
Ipsen has been a compounding pharmacist
for nearly 20 years. She
Dawn Ipsen
holds a full fellow with
the American College of Apothecaries
and is a clinical instructor for the University of Washington School of Pharmacy.

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pains, the doctors at Ankle &
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ankle and foot problems.

Top nominees will be honored
at an event in Spring 2017 and
featured in the April edition of
The Herald Business Journal.

DEADLINE TO NOMINATE IS SUNDAY, JAN. 8!
The Herald Business Journal and Moss Adams
– in partnership with Puget-PR, Economic
Alliance Snohomish County and Leadership
Snohomish County – are seeking to honor the
next generation of leadership in our community.
The Emerging Leaders Award pays tribute
to an individual who exemplifies outstanding
professional values: demonstrates the ability
to go above and beyond the expectations of
a leader; and serves as an inspiration to the
community. All nominees must currently
work or reside in Snohomish County.

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Let us help you put your best foot
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Contact HBJ editor Jim Davis at 425.339.3097 or jdavis@heraldnet.com
if you have questions.
1741414

ARLINGTON — State Farm agent
Jim Minifie has received the company’s
prestigious Crystal Excellence award.
Only a select few agents within the State
Farm network receive this honor. Minifie
has been with State Farm for 27 years.
His office is in Arlington.

We Know Feet
Inside and Out!

Recognizing and celebrating
the next generation of
leadership!

NOMINATIONS

EVERETT — Tom Lane, owner
and dealer principal at Dwayne Lane’s
Auto Family, has been
nominated for the 2017
Time Dealer of the Year
award. Lane oversees six
Washington dealerships
in Everett, Arlington,
Sedro-Woolley and
Burlington. He is one
Tom Lane
of 49 dealer nominees
from across the country who will be
honored at the 100th annual National
Automobile Dealers Association convention in January.

EVERETT — The
Holiday Inn Downtown
Everett, long the biggest hotel in town, has
been sold to a Bellingham group that plans to
completely renovate it
and reopen it as a Delta
by Marriott. Hollander
Hospitality purchased the
hotel at 2105 Pine St. in
June for $15.5 million.
The hotel is expected to
close for sometime next
year for the renovation.

DECEMBER 2016

BUSINESS BRIEFS

both new and existing
customers in Washington
state at no additional cost.
Most new customers will
receive these new speeds
immediately when they
sign-up. Existing users can
expect to see new speeds
before Dec. 1.

PORT OF EVERETT SHIPPING

Dec. 2: Swire, Shengking

EVERETT — Holiday
shoppers are invited to
help support the Providence General Children’s
Association simply by
shopping at one of the
two volunteer-supported
gift shops at Providence
Regional Medical Center’s
Colby and Pacific Avenue
campuses in Everett. Both
shops feature unique gift
items and holiday decor.

SNOHOMISH —
Snohomish Chamber
of Commerce member
banks will compete to
support the Snohomish
Community Food Bank
once again in their annual
Battle of the Banks. The
competition takes place
Dec. 1 through 30. Nonperishable food items and
monetary donations for
the food bank are being
collected at Snohomish
locations of Coastal Community Bank, Columbia
Bank, Opus Bank, Peoples
Bank - Fred Meyers, and
Washington Federal.

LYNNWOOD —
On Nov. 21, Comcast
announced it is significantly increasing the
speeds of its most popular
Xfinity Internet speed
packages – Performance
Pro and Blast Pro – for

LYNNWOOD —
SmartTalent, a premiere
staffing agency in Lynnwood, has partnered with
Volunteers of America and
The Everett Foodbank
for their annual Holiday
Food Drive. The event

The Peking Acrobats perform daring
maneuvers atop a precarious pagoda of chairs;
are experts at trick-cycling, precision tumbling,
somersaulting, and gymnastics; and defy gravity
with amazing displays of contortion, flexibility,
and control. Masters of agility and grace,
they push the envelope of human possibility.

JESSE COOK

Friday, January 27, 2017
7:30 pm | Tickets $24–$59
Jesse Cook is a Canadian guitarist, composer
and producer. Widely considered one of the
most influential figures in “nuevo flamenco”
music, he incorporates elements of flamenco,
rumba, jazz, and many forms of world music
into his work.

low-income families in the
Edmonds School District
who don’t have enough to
eat at home.
OLYMPIA — A report
showing total compensation costs for private
industry workers in the
Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia
metropolitan area is now
available online at http://
tinyurl.com/hubcsts.
The annual increase in
compensation costs in
Seattle was 2.4 percent in
September, compared to
advances that ranged from
3.3 percent to 2.6 percent
in the three other metropolitan areas in the West.
EVERETT — The
annual An Evening at
Emory’s event at Emory’s
on Silver Lake in October
raised a record $36,000
for Housing Hope’s
ChildHope initiative. The
gathering hosted nearly
100 supporters. Proceeds
will go to fund ChildHope’s education, support
and service programs for
homeless and low-income
children and their parents
in Snohomish County.
EVERETT — Pacific

OLYMPIA — Washington state’s taxable retail
sales reached $36.8 billion
in the second quarter of
2016, an increase of 8.6
percent over the same
quarter in 2015, according
to the Washington State
Department of Revenue.
Retail trade rose nearly
5.2 percent to a total of
$15.8 billion. Snohomish
County’s taxable retail
sales reached $3.39 billion
with retail trade at $1.79
billion.
EDMONDS —
Edmonds Center for the
Arts announced that they
have received a two-year
grant from Boeing to
support summer arts
enrichment camps, free
artist residencies and
outreach programs for
young people. The grant,
totaling $25,000, will also
help with professional
development opportunities for educators. Nearly
11,000 children, families,
teachers and community
members benefited from
Boeing’s last grant to the
arts organization.
EDMONDS — Ombu
Salon + Spa in Edmonds
is hosting a Days for Girls
product drive through the
end of the year. Days for

Transmissions
of Marysville

ECA SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT:

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European • Japanese • Domestic

Sunday, February 15, 2017
7:30 pm | Tickets $24–$59

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This 7-man crew is more than just your average
singing group. Its members have perfected
an intriguing a cappella style they’ve branded
as “Vocal Play” — singing as instruments.
Naturally 7 not only sings but also creates
every backing instrument heard on its songs.

ec4arts.org | 425.275.9595
410FOURTHAVENUENORTH
EDMONDSWA98020

Northwest Aerospace
Alliance hosts its annual
holiday party and toy
drive from 5 to 8 p.m.
Dec. 8 at the Museum of
Flight Restoration Center
at Paine Field in Everett.
Dress is casual for this
networking event. Cost is
$50 per person with a toy
donation and $70 without.
Toy donations benefit
Toys for Tots. Registration
and details can be found
at http://tinyurl.com/
hqyvxcg.

Girls collects and distributes disposable feminine
hygiene products to the
Edmonds School District
for girls in need. Drop off
feminine hygiene products
or checks made payable
to “Days for Girls of
Edmonds, Washington” at
Ombu Salon + Spa.
MONROE — Canyon
Creek Cabinet Company
has donated cabinets
to The House Church
in Snohomish for their
Washed mobile laundry service truck. The
16-foot box truck is a fully
contained mobile laundromat. It provides access to
laundry facilities for the
homeless in Snohomish
County.
EVERETT — Washington Technology
Institute is starting a new
campus at 13027 Bothell-Everett Highway,
Everett. Electronics Engineering Technology and
Computer Aided Drafting
and Design are the first
two programs that have
been approved. The twoyear technical school is
aiming for a January start
date with students able
to start each month, on a
space available basis.
BELLEVUE — The
Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties was honored
by the National Association of Home Builders
Remodelers program with
an award for Demonstrating Remodeling
Excellence in the Public
Relations and Promotion
category. The award was
in recognition of the
MBA’s own Remodeling
Excellence and Trade
Remodeling Excellence
awards program. The
awards were announced
on Oct. 6 during a presentation in Baltimore.
EVERETT — Coastal
Financial Corporation, the Everett-based
holding company for
Coastal Community
Bank, reported record net
earnings for a quarter with
$1.3 million of net income
for the third quarter
of 2016. The bank has
already exceeded earnings
for the full year of 2015,
with three months left
in the year, recording
the highest ever year-todate net earnings of $3.6
million.

DECEMBER 2016

THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL 19

BUSINESS BUILDERS

What Trump means for local economy
F
or only the second time since
1928, Republicans will control the
White House and both houses of
Congress.
Like the first two years of President
Bill Clinton and President Barack
Obama’s terms under friendly Democrat control, legislation has a chance
of passing that might not in other
circumstances.
Many in commercial real estate are
cautiously optimistic about the future as
early signals from President-elect Trump
indicate his interest in repatriating
overseas capital, increasing infrastructure
investment and creating a culture of
regulatory changes designed to get banks
back into the game of lending to smalland medium-sized businesses.
Of the anticipated changes, repealing
or modifying Dodd-Frank Act as well as
temporary tax incentives that might repatriate the estimated $1.3 trillion in corporate funds sitting in overseas accounts
might be the two most important to
ordinary Americans and commercial real
estate investors alike.
Dodd-Frank is the regulatory act that
came behind the bank failures during
the recession. Brian Moynihan, CEO
of Bank of America, sums up the effect
of Dodd-Frank today by noting that it

accomplished it’s
primary objective
in making banks
safer, “but we aren’t
making enough
loans.”
Banks need to
get back into the
business they’re
Tom
designed for and
repealing or modiHoban
fying Dodd-Frank
would be a good
Realty
step.
Markets
Pair that with
repatriation of
overseas capital would be another good
step.
In the Pacific Northwest, there is
already anticipation by most economists
that we can expect net in-migration for
the foreseeable future, which supports
growth.
Our challenges in the Puget Sound
area, specifically, are around reacting
to growth wisely, which is why President-elect Trump’s pairing of repatriation
of overseas corporate cash with infrastructure spending is important.
The Puget Sound region needs more
roads and affordable housing. Another
viable north-south corridor to serve the

So we lack any real political muscle in
Washington, D.C., at the moment if, other
states want to plant the seeds for a Boeing
expansion in their backyard.
eastern part of Snohomish, King and
Pierce counties — along with the expansion of light rail — needs to be planned
soon.
Otherwise,we’ll lose the chance to keep
great jobs here because we’ve created
long commutes and expensive housing
that drives business away.
What we should begin to worry about
is Boeing. President-elect Trump didn’t
need Washington state to win and even
our sitting Republican members of the
house (both of our Senators are Democrats) were on the fence in their support
from what was dubbed a Ted Cruz state
going into the Republican Convention
this summer.
Most of the country’s governors
and over half of the state houses are in
Republican hands.
So we lack any real political muscle
in Washington, D.C., at the moment if
other states want to plant the seeds for a

Boeing expansion in their backyard the
way seeds were sown before Washington
lost the second 787 plant to South Carolina in 2008.
In the meantime, every category of
commercial real estate today in the Puget
Sound is experiencing some degree of
good health, with the exception of office
buildings in the urban areas of downtown
Everett and parts of Tacoma.
Even these, though, are on the comeback now.
Everett, in particular, stands to see a
surge in demand if and when Paine Field
opens up commercial passenger service.
A Trump presidency that simultaneously repatriates corporate cash and
invests in infrastructure could only
help.
Tom Hoban is CEO of The Coast Group of
Companies. Contact him at 425-339-3638
or tomhoban@coastmgt.com or visit www.
coastmgt.com. Twitter: @Tom_P_Hoban.

arketing is a complex pseudoscience, one that has become
even more challenging to get
“right” in the adolescence of our digital
era.
And your success depends on crafting
the right message.
This is the second installment of a
four-part series detailing the “four secrets
to marketing success,” which covers “the
right message.”
After you “target the right market”
(the first secret), you’ll develop messages
that are compelling and relevant to your
target audience.
When crafting messages, remember
that you are writing for your future
customers, based on their values, and not
for yourself.
To truly understand what your
prospective customers care most about
requires research. Growth strategy nerds
like me refer to this research as “voice of
the customer.”
Understanding the preferences and
perceptions of your customers is arguably
the most important business information
you can acquire.
It gives you insight into how other
people like them (prospective customers) make buying decisions. You can
gather voice of the customer information

through interviews
and focus groups.
Once you know
what your customers care about,
there is a tried-andtrue formula that
will help
you properly
Andrew
sequence your mesBallard
sages to improve
results.
Growth
Many successful
copywriters
use
Strategies
the AIDA method,
which stands
for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.
These are the four stages a consumer
or purchasing agent go through (during
the buying process) as they consider and
eventually make a buying decision.
The length of time it takes a consumer
to go through these four stages has
mostly to do with the product
category.
When purchasing a loaf of bread, a
consumer isn’t even aware of the buying
process… it takes a matter of seconds.
However, when considering a larger purchase, such as a new car or cloud application for a business, the buying process
can be lengthy. Following is the AIDA

messaging process.
Attention: You need to cut through
the clutter before you’ll get anyone’s
attention.
The most important copy you’ll ever
write is the headline or hook.
Advertising legend David Ogilvy
started by writing up to 16 headlines for
every ad he wrote.
And he made a gazillion dollars doing
so; you might consider following his lead.
Asking a poignant question and using a
stunning illustration or photograph are
also effective attention-getters.
Interest: You want to communicate
“what’s in it for them” early in your message to peak your prospects’ interests.
Use short, simple sentences that
convey advantages and benefits. A list
of features won’t get prospects excited;
benefits are why people buy. Explain how
your product or service will make your
prospect’s life better, safer, more fun or
productive.
Desire: All purchases are motivated by
either “decreasing pain” or “increasing
gain.”
Make a connection with your audience’s underlying motivation based on
the solution or satisfaction your product
or service will provide.
This is the part of your message where

you’ll make an irresistible offer, a strong
guarantee or astonishing claim (as long as
it’s legitimate).
Action: A “call to action” is imperative
if you want to generate a response.
Be specific about what you want your
prospect to do: call for more information, go to our website, click on our app,
schedule an appointment, etc.
Creating urgency (limited time or
inventory), building value (third-party
endorsement) and offering an incentive
can also increase action and response
rates.
Another best practice in crafting messages that succeed in generating results to
be very clear and concise.
Don’t try to cram in every copy point
imaginable… stick to a single selling
proposition. Following the AIDA method
— and order — will most likely improve
your results.
When you target the right market with
the right message, you are halfway there.
Check out my January column to learn
about the recipe for selecting the right
communication channels and media to
deliver your message.
Andrew Ballard is president of Marketing
Solutions, an agency specializing in growth
strategies. For more information, call 425337-1100 or go to www.mktg-solutions.com.

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1729599

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BUSINESS BUILDERS

DECEMBER 2016

THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL 21

Keep clutter away and productivity up
O

ne of the keys to being productive when we get down to
business is to create an environment that supports us in working in an
efficient manner.
If our offices (and our minds) are in
disarray, cluttered and feel overwhelming,
it can be a challenge to sit down and get
to work.
The following five strategies are attainable ways you can create conditions in
your work life to support your pursuit of
productivity:
■ Create an organized work space.
I love being able to find what I need in
my office in 30 seconds or less. Searching
for things brings on a dose of stress that
none of us need, right?
Make sure you have a supportive chair
at the correct height for your monitor
and desk. Also make sure office supplies
you use every day are within easy reach.
Keep organized files with clear labels
(preferably labeled with a label maker)
within arm’s reach.
■ Reduce clutter. Visual clutter can
feel overwhelming, it can make a space
feel smaller and result in misplaced
documents. Go stand at the door to your
office and pretend like you’re seeing the
space for the first time. Are there piles,
duplicates, stacks and papers out of place?
Are there bulletin boards loaded with

flyers, calendars,
schedules, photos
and mementos? It
may be time to do
a clean sweep of
the room.
■ Reduce
mental clutter.
To do lists, project
Monika
ideas and creative
Kristofferson
thoughts are all
good things unless
they become overOffice
whelming and turn
Efficiency
into mental clutter.
Get things out
of your head as thoughts and onto paper
as words. This can help you feel assured
that tasks and ideas won’t be forgotten or
slip through the cracks.
Be sure to find a reliable system you
can count on instead of writing lists on
napkins and sticky notes all over your
office.
Keep in mind the ‘reduce clutter’ tips
above. Some of the many options available to use are legal pads, a note taking
app or you can create a Word document.
Schedule projects on your calendar
so you have concrete times to work on
them.
Be reasonable about how many new
projects you can work on at one time.

If you have a list of new products you’d
like to create, focus on getting one done
before you move onto the next one.
■ Create white space. The first time
I heard the term white space, I didn’t
know what it was. Now I appreciate the
concept.
Creating white space in your calendar
means creating time with nothing on
your calendar. Yes, nothing.
I believe that one of the reasons people
get so stressed out in life is by over committing themselves, taking on too much
and saying, ‘Yes’ too often.
There’s great value in removing tasks,
meetings, commitments and social
engagements from your plate when you
can.
If you don’t have white space built into
your schedule, you can easily find yourself carving into time that could be
better spent on personal care or family
time.
■ Embrace tools for productivity.
We’re very fortunate to have a vast array
of productivity tools at our fingertips just
a search engine away.
Although, I don’t think it’s necessary to
always be on the search for the newest,
latest and greatest.
What I do think is important is to find
a system that works for you that you can
use consistently and works with your

natural work habits.
A few good tools include a solid calendar system for reminders, appointments,
recurring events, meetings, etc.
Something else that you need is great
note-taking app. Being able to jot down
notes on your computer that are synced
with your phone is a very effective way
of having your notes with you wherever
you go.
A timer is a fantastic way to manage
time by lighting a fire to get us working
and can provide the benefit of a little
challenge to try to beat the clock.
You can use a timer on your phone,
free timers on the Internet and of course
you can purchase timers as well.
Last, a solid client data base goes
a long way for productivity and your
bottom line when you can easily stay in
contact with your clients.
Being productive doesn’t just happen
on its own. You can foster productivity
by creating conditions and an environment that supports you in your efforts to
work in a calm space, feel in control and
promote a balance between your work
and personal life.
Monika Kristofferson is a professional
organizer and productivity consultant who
owns Efficient Organization NW inLakeStevens. Reach her at 425-220-8905 or
monika@efficientorganizationnw.com.

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20 local clubs to choose from: Morning – noon – evening
START YOUR OWN CLUB
For more information and to find a club near you:
www.toastmasters.org
1729671

24 THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL

DECEMBER 2016

PLEASE NOTE: Business license information is obtained monthly from the Washington
Secretary of State’s Office through the paid
commercial services of InfoUSA. For the
complete list, please go to www.theheraldbusinessjournal.com.

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1729630

26 THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL

DECEMBER 2016

SNOHOMISH COUNTY ECONOMIC DATA
Pending sales,
residential real
estate

Closed sales,
residential real
estate

Unemployment
rate, percent

Continued
unemployment
claims

Aerospace
employment

Construction
employment

Professional
services
employment

Local sales tax distributions, Snohomish
County and
incorporated cities

04/12

1,570

886

7.3

10,674

44,400

14,700

23,100

$3,761,069

05/12

1,579

1,000

7.8

9,578

44,700

15,100

23,300

$4,247,900

06/12

1,448

1,025

8.4

8,951

45,200

15,400

23,300

$4,064,415

07/12

1,400

1,029

8.4

9,114

45,800

16,100

23,300

$4,264,446

08/12

1,324

1,027

7.5

7,834

46,300

16,500

23,400

$4,485,421

09/12

1,206

880

7.1

7,865

46,900

16,300

23,600

$4,522,340

10/12

1,325

937

7

7,870

46,800

16,300

23,300

$4,577,850

11/12

1,114

806

6.8

8,445

47,500

16,100

23,000

$4,768,450

12/12

872

892

6.6

9,351

47,100

15,900

23,100

$4,378,797

01/13

1,154

713

7.1

9,962

46,800

15,600

22,600

$4,466,777

02/13

1,236

673

6.3

9,182

46,600

15,300

22,500

$5,680,845

03/13

1,576

932

5.7

9,060

46,400

15,400

22,500

$4,093,977

04/13

1,500

1,020

4.9

8,891

46,100

15,500

22,900

$3,970,313

05/13

1,487

1,131

4.7

8,093

45,500

15,800

22,700

$4,725,432

06/13

1,488

1,159

5.7

7,888

45,700

16,200

22,900

$4,316,634

07/13

1,470

1,141

5.6

7,787

45,900

18,000

24,000

$4,584,288

08/13

1,402

1,143

6.2

7,062

44,900

18,400

24,000

$4,921,104

09/13

1,150

1,032

N/A

7,180

45,100

18,300

24,000

$3,573,194

10/13

1,219

1,041

6.0

7,149

44,500

18,200

23,900

$4,998,366

11/13

1,010

833

5.7

7,499

44,300

17,900

24,200

$5,132,975

12/13

835

871

5.3

8,829

44,700

17,800

24,000

$3,348,852

01/14

1,195

615

6.0

9,651

44,000

14,500

23,300

$3,382,321

02/14

1,180

688

6.4

8,850

43,700

14,800

23,100

$4,087,089

03/14

1,481

949

6.0

8,897

43,700

14,800

23,400

$3,013,059

04/14

1,454

943

4.9

8,069

43,400

14,800

23,100

$2,923,521

05/14

1,718

1,074

5.0

7,502

43,600

15,100

23,100

$3,370,904

06/14

1,545

1,220

5.1

7,177

44,400

15,400

23,300

$3,290,880

07/14

1,457

1,172

5.3

6,587

44,000

18,400

23,500

$3,474,651

08/14

1,393

1,163

5.4

6,244

43,000

18,800

23,800

$3,695,926

09/14

1,328

1,057

5.1

N/A

42,900

18,800

23,800

$3,838,762

10/14

1,327

1,113

4.8

N/A

41,400

18,300

24,200

$3,663,750

11/14

1,027

885

4.8

6,093

41,800

18,000

24,100

$3,852,205

12/14

956

920

4.5

N/A

42,000

17,700

24,100

$3,582,032

1/15

1,237

686

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

$3,280,200

2/15

1,406

740

5.3

6,663

43,000

17,200

23,700

$4,146,999

3/15

1,938

1,075

4.5

6,762

42,800

17,500

24,000

$2,981,599

4/15

1,747

1,272

3.6

6,273

42,800

18,100

24,100

$3,041,795

5/15

1,777

1,315

4.0

5,923

42,800

18,600

24,000

$3,654,693

6/15

1,799

1,374

4.3

5,607

42,700

19,200

24,400

$3,445,201

7/15

1,764

1,411

4.3

5,323

44,100

20,700

25,000

$3,590,957

8/15

1,634

1,442

3.9

5,367

43,600

21,200

25,300

$11,743,713

9/15

1,501

1,290

4.1

5,089

43,600

21,200

25,200

$11,603,019

10/15

1,503

1,178

4.5

5,109

43,400

20,400

25,100

$10,854,566

11/15

1,307

973

5.0

5,748

43,500

20,100

24,900

$11,503,562

12/15

1,067

1,189

5.0

6,193

43,600

19,800

25,300

$10,765,437

1/16

1,249

811

5.7

7,085

43,600

19,300

24,500

$10,477,405

2/16

1,475

848

5.3

6,388

43,500

19,600

24,500

$13,559,687

3/16

1,825

1,156

5.2

6,084

43,100

20,000

24,800

$9,496,443

4/16

1,836

1,213

4.4

5,957

43,300

19,800

25,600

$9,617,406

5/16

1,979

1,386

4.8

5,770

43,300

20,300

25,800

$11,697,044

6/16

1,862

1,493

4.7

5,396

43,800

21,000

26,400

$10,816,389

7/16

1,795

1,515

4.8

5,489

44,000

21,700

26,400

$11,102,633

8/16

1.873

1,538

4.4

5,502

43,900

22,100

26,500

$12,493,656

9/16

1,601

1,431

4.3

5,377

43,500

22,200

26,500

$12,193,233

10/16

1,561

1,364

4.0

5,502

42,100

22,800

26,700

N/A

Consumer price
index, King
and Snohomish
counties
237.93

239.54

240.21

241.36

237.99

239.90

240.82

242.82

242.77

242.78

241.05

242.77

246.61

247.64

247.18

247.854

245.05

245.496

247.611

251.622

251.617

250.831

250.385

250.942

253.815

256.098
256.907

NOVEMBER
DECEMBER 2016

THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL 27

ECONOMIC DATA
Boeing
stock
price

PUD retail
electricity use,
kilowatt hours

Snohomish
County PUD
connections

New vehicle
registrations

Average gas
price (regular,
unleaded

04/12

$76.80

619,896,882

223

4,305

$4.08

05/12

$69.61

495,062,119

290

4,748

$4.16

06/12

$74.30

498,393,947

222

4,585

$4.00

07/12

$73.91

446,516,298

207

4,402

$3.57

08/12

$71.40

468,361,106

282

4,664

$3.81

09/12

$69.60

408,581,275

255

4,155

$4.01

10/12

$70.44

503,030,443

442

4,303

$3.96

11/12

$74.28

473,023,558

225

3,682

$3.47

12/12

$75.36

614,283,104

234

3,636

$3.34

01/13

$73.87

700,861,857

223

4,656

$3.37

02/13

$76.90

674,618,017

316

3,753

$3.62

03/13

$85.85

608,606,315

330

4,713

$3.80

04/13

$91.41

617,541,384

321

4,943

$3.64

05/13

$99.05

492,112,324

276

5,256

$3.83

06/13

$102.32

465,163,451

213

5,275

$3.79

07/13

$105.10

453,404,099

322

5,622

$3.82

08/13

$103.92

470,067,543

232

5,742

$3.78

09/13

$117.50

410,719,601

338

5,141

$3.65

10/13

$138.36

518,766,206

461

5,179

$3.44

11/13

$133.83

461,012,493

447

4,083

$3.24

12/13

$136.92

671,835,200

244

4,752

$3.29

01/14

$125.26

696,306,571

421

5,726

$3.36

02/14

$128.92

682,348,469

386

4,467

$3.31

03/14

$125.49

610,841,349

352

5,428

$3.75

04/14

$129.02

605,381,115

368

6,389

$3.74

05/14

$135.25

468,754,469

466

6,542

$3.87

06/14

$127.23

492,917,254

412

6,626

$3.93

07/14

$120.48

432,682,894

444

6,611

$3.95

08/14

$126.80

463,314,006

363

5,614

$3.83

09/14

$127.38

451,089,566

264

5,987

$3.74

10/14

$124.91

496,335,315

403

5,929

$3.40

11/14

$134.36

422,769,229

426

4,867

$3.04

12/14

$132.25

663,368,433

426

6,072

$2.88

1/15

$145.37

634,592,067

209

6,364

$2.30

2/15

$150.85

611,633,434

287

5,889

$2.30

3/15

$150.08

567,831,393

284

7,707

$2.85

4/15

$143.34

578,264,358

427

8,057

$2.70

5/15

$140.52

449,046,426

326

8,649

$3.05

6/15

$138.72

494,611,488

384

9,852

$3.10

7/15

$144.17

451,503,602

334

7,641

$3.20

8/15

$130.68

474,207,621

242

7,021

$3.09

9/15

$130.95

557,429,310

442

7,018

$2.79

10/15

$148.07

N/A

217

6,828

$2.49

11/15

$145.45

N/A

221

5,631

$2.41

12/15

$144.59

N/A

282

6,995

$2.35

1/16

$120.13

N/A

333

6,910

$2.33

2/16

$118.18

655,390,592

333

7,298

$2.02

3/16

$126.94

612,151,814

288

9,209

$2.12

4/16

$134.80

514,320,049

428

8,364

$2.25

5/16

$126.15

457,566,044

342

8,906

$2.44

6/16

$129.87

463,105,233

277

10,754

$2.57

7/16

$133.66

430,295,041

435

8,268

$2.56

8/16

$129.45

467,001,501

325

8,315

$2.49

9/16

$131.74

454,085,665

394

7,628

$2.60

10/16

$142.43

N/A

N/A

6,861

$2.64
1696808

28 THE HERALD BUSINESS JOURNAL

DECEMBER 2016

Dan Ollis, Whidbey Coffee
Family man
Mud runner
Coffee connoisseur

Each and every one of us is an original. Shaped by
unique inuences that make us who we are today.
Here at Heritage Bank, we think differences can
build a better bank, too. That’s why we share the
best ideas from across all of our branches and
local communities with one goal in mind: to serve
our customers better every day. By sharing our
strengths, we’re able to offer customers like Dan
Ollis—and you—more than a community bank. But
rather, a community oƒ banks.